I remember an article released earlier this year that had an interesting point. Research showed that positive reviews didn't increase sales, but negative ones hurt sales.

Might be nothing but there was a bizarre turn of events with regard to hacking on the PC for Black Ops 2. Somebody uploaded a video clip showing a player using a hack (aimbot), was fairly obvious, and the guy was reporting it to Treyarch/Activision. A bit later the Video is taken down upon a dmca request/complaint (I think) and his youtube account was given a strike. (I assume of the 6 strike variety?)

Later this caught a lot of peoples attention and during a reddit AMA from a Black Ops 2 dev this guy asked them directly, why did you pull my video and give me a strike against my account?

The response was this:"If can be impossible for the people who are watching this know the difference between people trying to get YouTube famous from hacking videos, and those intending to help. It's a pretty thing line."

To me this sounds like: "You're going to hurt our sales talking about Aimbots so shut the fuck up or we'll punish you."

LinkIt's the top comment, and the reply is a few levels down. I think this supports your theory that bad reviews have much more effect than good ones. It's about silencing critics, not fluffing your scores in the end.